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China executes two Muslims for pre-Olympics attack - Telegraph
China has executed two Muslim separatists who were convicted of attacking a police station in the country's restive northwest in the run up to the opening of last summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.
The attack in the Silk Road city of Kashgar in the far northwestern province of Xinjiang left 17 dead, including many policemen, and prompted a major security crackdown with armoured cars being deployed outside Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium.
Abdurahman Azat, 34, and Kurbanjan Hemit, 29, were both members of China's Uighur minority, a Turkic ethnic group which the Chinese government has said it considers a "major threat" to stability.
The two men rammed into a large group of police while they were out on a morning training run on Aug 4 2008, before following up with explosives, a home-made gun and knives, state-run media reported at the time.
According to an official report, the attack was part of a plan to "sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games", although Kashgar is some 2,500 miles from Beijing and no attacks were carried out in the capital.
The news of the executions, which are carried out in China by lethal injection or a bullet to the head, was read out in front of 4,000 officials and Kashgar residents in a local stadium.
The Uighur minority accounts for almost half of Xinjiang's population of 20 million. Many resent control from Beijing which this year will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the entry of the People's Liberation Army into the province.
Already the Chinese government has warned it fears further terrorist attacks in the run up to the anniversary in October.
A spokesman for the Europe-based World Uyghur Congress, said the two men had not received fair treatment, alleging that Hemit had been badly beaten while in custody and was unable to walk during his trial.
"There was no chance for their families to see them, and no lawyer at all," said Dilxat Raxit, adding that the bodies of the executed men had not been returned to their families.
China has executed two Muslim separatists who were convicted of attacking a police station in the country's restive northwest in the run up to the opening of last summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.
The attack in the Silk Road city of Kashgar in the far northwestern province of Xinjiang left 17 dead, including many policemen, and prompted a major security crackdown with armoured cars being deployed outside Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium.
Abdurahman Azat, 34, and Kurbanjan Hemit, 29, were both members of China's Uighur minority, a Turkic ethnic group which the Chinese government has said it considers a "major threat" to stability.
The two men rammed into a large group of police while they were out on a morning training run on Aug 4 2008, before following up with explosives, a home-made gun and knives, state-run media reported at the time.
According to an official report, the attack was part of a plan to "sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games", although Kashgar is some 2,500 miles from Beijing and no attacks were carried out in the capital.
The news of the executions, which are carried out in China by lethal injection or a bullet to the head, was read out in front of 4,000 officials and Kashgar residents in a local stadium.
The Uighur minority accounts for almost half of Xinjiang's population of 20 million. Many resent control from Beijing which this year will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the entry of the People's Liberation Army into the province.
Already the Chinese government has warned it fears further terrorist attacks in the run up to the anniversary in October.
A spokesman for the Europe-based World Uyghur Congress, said the two men had not received fair treatment, alleging that Hemit had been badly beaten while in custody and was unable to walk during his trial.
"There was no chance for their families to see them, and no lawyer at all," said Dilxat Raxit, adding that the bodies of the executed men had not been returned to their families.